TRAINING UPDATE

CERTIFICATION AND TRAINING RECORDS

An issue which comes up occasionally is that members wish to have training taken through other training agencies recognized by Ambercroft and, as a result, to have the training recorded on the back of a Training Record card (which has the member’s picture on the front).

We recognize:

     • training delivered by the Construction Safety Association of Ontario (CSAO)
     • training delivered by the Workers Health and Safety Centre (WHSC)
     • first aid from St. John’s Ambulance or the Red Cross

Otherwise, we ask that members take our training programs. They can carry documents with certification from other agencies – which may or may not be recognized by employers, Ministry of Labour inspectors, or others. But we cannot put such training on our records unless we are prepared to verify the quality of the training.

Sometimes, individuals come to us having taken WHMIS, Fall Arrest, or Propane Safety elsewhere. It is not a great hardship for them to do our program; these are half-day or shorter courses available Saturday mornings, twice a month or more frequently.

Individuals with certification as equipment operators, for example Forklift, can do our Certification training in two days or less. This is an instructive example: we have had members who have taken Forklift courses from private trainers who have subsequently tried our program unsuccessfully. This experience is one of the reasons why we have developed the policy of requiring members to take our training if we are to certify them.

Recently, we accepted an apprentice who had completed a program similar to our Basic Construction Craft Worker at a community college. We were willing to recognize that he had equivalent training but could not record success in some specific courses where he had been passed by the college with marks of 55% and 60%. We require 80% in Health and Safety courses.

In all probability the training taken elsewhere by members was beneficial, possibly excellent. But we want employers, and our members, to know that they can depend on the quality of the training which appears on our records. We can only do that with training we have delivered or verified.

Comments? Email jmclaren@506tc.org